1981
July 31, Nuoro
Santo Lanzafame, 35 years old, Carabiniere Appuntato
On August 6, 1981, in a hospital in Cagliari, Santo Lanzafame died, one of the victims of the war declared against the State by Barbagia Rossa, the Sardinian organization affiliated with the Brigate Rosse. Lanzafame, originally from Catania, had just turned 40. He was a Carabiniere Appuntato serving in the Mobile Radio Unit of the Command in Nuoro. He was married to a young woman from Lodé and had five children, the oldest of whom was 10 years old. On July 31, the blue Alfetta he was in during a routine patrol on Mount Ortobene was hit by bursts from a deadly English Sterling submachine gun. It was 10:40 PM, at the Borbore curve, the last one before the Church of Solitude. There, Appuntato Lanzafame — along with Carabiniere Baingio Gaspa from Sassari, who remained unharmed — unwittingly had an appointment with history, unfortunately also with death. (…) Barbagia Rossa claimed responsibility for the murder, specifying that Lanzafame was the target. Santo Lanzafame did not hold strategic positions; every day he left home in his uniform to go to work, and when he could, he took care of his children. Certainly, he was aware of the dangers his uniform exposed him to, simply by wearing it.